Creating movement trays for warhammer

[jus]

Have you ever picked up your movement tray for a wheel move, and then it slips and all your models tumble over? Its quite frustrating when the tray has to balance on a tilt on a piece of terrain, and they all tip over.

What about when you want to refrom from block formation to line formation?

As a rule, I never use a movement tray now, that hasn't been given the magnet treatment.

Your models will never tumble over and you will probably enjoy the game more if you aren't worrying about models wobbling around. I know I certainly do. Having pioneered its use here on Nagoyahammer, I will shamelessly restate that magnet trays ROCK, and if you start using them, you will never go back.

Of course whatever tray you use can still use magnets, so whever you want to use other dave's cool order trays, or GWs modular movement trays, 100 yen 20 x20 mm magnets will still work.

I use tokyyu hands sturdy foam card. You can still put edges on it if you want, but what are edges on a movement tray for? its to hold the bolck of troops together, and give you something to paint. But magnets hold my troops together just fine, so I don't need edges. Yes, when casulties are taken off the tray, black squares become glaringly obvious.But to counter that, you could always paint over the magnets. I intend to anyway.

All in all, I find utility more important than looks when it comes to movement trays. Its the models you are looking at after all

[The Other Dave]

I love the stuff from that store but I just cant justify the cost I need like 6 trays of 20 and that is going to cost me like 70$ american I could pay it but I really would rather spend 70$ on models and just have to move the trays..I can make out of 100 yen stuff...I really want those trays though... hummmm what to do what to do .....

I just checked - 5 x 4 trays for 25mm bases are $5.99 each, with $10 for shipping if you get 6. That's less than $50, which isn't quite 100-yen-store level, but is in the range of one of the more-expensive GW kits.

But yeah, I do understand the "it's money I could spend on models" angle. Personally I figure that movement trays are as important to the look of your army as base decoration and battlefield terrain (in the sense that if they look like poo they take away from the whole army's look disproportionately), so you may as well spend a little bit of money to make them look as good as possible.

Edit to add, after reading jus' comment above: I also, of course, have the luxury of not having to worry too much about magnetizing, as my army consists entirely of models that a) are plastic and b) have a nice low center of gravity - models tipping over as I move the tray has never happened to me.

[Seb]

@Jus

Can I get these magnets at any 100 yen store? The only 100 yen store I know of is Daiso, do they have them there? And if I get some how do they look like, are they 20x20mm small sheets each a piece? And if so how many in one package?

Cheers!

[jus]

@ seb: you are in luck my friend, I buy all mine at daiso. Just look in the stationary section and you should find them. In a packet there are 40, arranged 5 by 8, if I remember correctly. I would get 1000 yen plus worth of those packets. I have magnetised 2 armys and have used upwards 16 packs.

....hmmm hold it seb. It has just come to me that your chaos warriors are NOT on the 20 x 20 mm bases!!!!
(are they?)

your chaos daemons would be ok (if you have them)

hmm ok in this case, you can get the giant one piece magnets, also available at daiso, and cut them to fit your bases. sorry

[Seb]

Thanks Jus, that is perfect, my army is not so big (yet) so I think a few packs will do it for me.
Indeed, Chaos Warriors are on the 25x25mm bases so the 20mm magnets might look strange, but it could be ok and concealed since I am building an edge around the tray anyway, I just got the perfect idea of how to do that.

I will take a tray, either the wooden board I have or buy some at Toukyuu, cut it out and build an edge around it made of cork, file down the edges and then sand it, that will look perfect with my current bases, all this plus magnets under that would make crazy awesome movement trays.

Thanks for the info.

[Seb]

Okay, just finished my first movement tray for my Warhounds. I decided to document it with pictures.

Here is how it went:



1. First I placed the models on the board to draw the outlines where I wanted to saw it.



2. The board sawed off.



3. Here I started adding the rocky edges to the tray, material is cork.



4. Rocky edges done.



5. This might be overkill but I decided to follow the advice of Jus and magnetize the whole thing while at it. The magnet is magnetic sheet bought at daiso. Thanks Jus for the advice bro!



6. After magnetizing the board I did the same with the models.



7. Here the magnetizing is done and I started to sand the cork.



8. Sanding is done.



9. Finished! A magnetized home made movement tray. It doesn't look that pro but the whole thing costed me almost nothing maybe around 200 yen for all the material I used. It will look so much better when it is painted.



10. Last picture. Here I tested the strength of the magnetizing. It is wonderful, these models will not move a millimeter while playing. The edges combined with the magnets provide supreme strength, maybe a little bit overkill.

Credits also go out to Jus for providing me with the info and the idea to magnetize.
It took me about 2 hours making this baby. What do you think?

[Admiral-Badruck]

Have you ever picked up your movement tray for a wheel move, and then it slips and all your models tumble over? Its quite frustrating when the tray has to balance on a tilt on a piece of terrain, and they all tip over.

What about when you want to refrom from block formation to line formation?

As a rule, I never use a movement tray now, that hasn't been given the magnet treatment.

Your models will never tumble over and you will probably enjoy the game more if you aren't worrying about models wobbling around. I know I certainly do. Having pioneered its use here on Nagoyahammer, I will shamelessly restate that magnet trays ROCK, and if you start using them, you will never go back.

Of course whatever tray you use can still use magnets, so whever you want to use other dave's cool order trays, or GWs modular movement trays, 100 yen 20 x20 mm magnets will still work.

I use tokyyu hands sturdy foam card. You can still put edges on it if you want, but what are edges on a movement tray for? its to hold the bolck of troops together, and give you something to paint. But magnets hold my troops together just fine, so I don't need edges. Yes, when casulties are taken off the tray, black squares become glaringly obvious.But to counter that, you could always paint over the magnets. I intend to anyway.

All in all, I find utility more important than looks when it comes to movement trays. Its the models you are looking at after all

can you make one for me Jus/Seb? I will pay you for it...

[The Other Dave]

What do you think?

Very nice, is what I think! Seems to really do the trick - I like the idea of cork for the edging.

Are you planning on doing anything to cover up the bare magnet for when casualties start happening?

[Seb]

Very nice, is what I think! Seems to really do the trick - I like the idea of cork for the edging.

Are you planning on doing anything to cover up the bare magnet for when casualties start happening?

Cheers!
Yeah, the edge got me going. It's what makes the movement tray look good. And cork is such a forgiving and great looking material to work with.

As for the magnet and casualties, like Jus said I will do the same and give it a paint job but that is all, can't touch the surface of the magnets too much. It would be cool to sand and do stuff like that but that would probably ruin the magnets.

@ Admiral, Sure I could make you some after I have finished my own. Dont know how long that will take though. But maybe you should have a look at the tray IRL before you decide, if you like the cork look then no problem but there are many people that dont like it.

[Admiral-Badruck]

Cork is find with me I use it on a lot of my models.